Motherwell manager Stuart Kettlewell has told his players they must embrace the challenge of facing Rangers three days after Celtic if they want to achieve goals such as qualifying for Europe.
Well dropped from fourth to sixth place in the Scottish Premiership after losing 4-0 at Celtic Park on Boxing Day and seeing St Mirren shock Rangers in Paisley hours later.
Kettlewell now wants his men to view the visit of Philippe Clement’s side as an opportunity to prove their worth.
“We’ve just been trying to get this mindset: what’s our aspirations, what’s our ambition as a group of players and staff and football club? And for me, that is to test yourself against the best,” he said.
“If you have any fear or any trepidation in that, then there’s no point in turning up, there’s no point in being there, there’s no point in being in this environment.
“So my challenge to the players and to the staff, to myself, is that you have to embrace that.
“If you play at the highest level, you have to play every three days.
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“We must have aspirations, we’re trying to see if we can absolutely push ourselves to the limit in this league. What might be the fruits of that can be playing in Europe and these types of things, which this club’s done before.
“And to do that, you need to have a very particular mindset. And to do that, I believe you have to be robust, that’s another thing. You have to be able to put yourself out there continuously. And you have to find a level of consistency in your work and what you do.”
Motherwell held out at Celtic Park until conceding a soft penalty in first-half stoppage-time and Marvin Kaleta had a header blocked on the line at 1-0. Kettlewell wants to build on elements of their performance.
“We try and take the good bits that we had and I think there was plenty of that to a point,” he said.
“We have to play with a wee bit more bravery and possession, we have to carry the fight that little bit more and try and stay in possession longer than what we did.
“A lot of the defensive aspect at times was good, but there’s aspects we need to take and there’s bits that we’re going to have to try and improve on and try and see if we can tweak that over the next couple of days.
“But it’s a very different game as well, the fact that it’s at home and it’s against a different opponent, but equally a very good one.
“But my message is go and embrace the task, go and embrace the challenge.”
